Native American & Indigenous Studies (NAIS) is an interdisciplinary field of study focused on all aspects of Indigenous experiences, worldwide. NAIS scholarship may transcend disciplinary structures and methods rooted in European academic traditions. However, these Western systems of knowledge organization still structure most libraries and archives in the United States, including the FSU Libraries.
This guide attempts to offer resources and search strategies for NAIS scholars.
NAIS is global in scope, but this guide focuses mostly on the United States, and especially the Native South, as illustrative of the types of sources that exist while also including some guidance on how to do research on Native US and Global Indigeneity.
As members of Florida State University community, the librarians and staff of the FSU Libraries acknowledge that we live and work on the ancestral and traditional homelands of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, the Apalachee, Seminole and Muscogee Nations, the ancient Calusa, Uzita and Tocobaga, and others. We pay respect to the resiliency of their tribal members, past and present, and to all Indigenous peoples. We also recognize that the information resources to which we provide access travel across digital infrastructures of servers, cables, and computer devices that also sit on stolen lands within and beyond Florida.
The FSU Libraries joins the University in honoring its unique and collaborative friendship with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, together paying tribute to the Tribe’s great history and rich culture. We encourage all to learn about the significance of Indigenous peoples in this region and throughout the nation. With a collective knowledge of the past, we are inspired to teach, live, and support a future that empowers all individuals.
This guide was authored by Adam Beauchamp in 2023.
I am grateful to Andrew Frank for his feedback on drafts of this guide, to the excellent guidance and resources published by the X̱wi7x̱wa Library, and to the Ithaka S+R report, "When Research is Relational" (2019), which provides useful insights for librarians providing information services to Indigenous studies scholars.
Except where otherwise noted, the content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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